Cleaning pistons in block?

[SierraDave]

I pulled my cylinder head because of a blown head gasket and there is some carbon build-up on the tops of the pistons. What's the best way to remove the carbon while the pistons are still in the block? Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

[4-lo]

On mine I went to home depot and grab a wire wheel attach it to my cordless screw gun and let it have it. Works good for me.

[4RunnerChevy]

Sea Foam and a a light touch with a wire brush, don't go to town though.  Plug all the holes cause one of the little wires can reak havoc on stuff.

[2manytoys]

Make sure you use a shop vac and suck out anything that gets down on top of the top ring. You don't want anything scraping up and down your cylinder walls when you start it. Especially a piece of wire.

[SierraDave]

Thanks! The SeaFoam worked great!

[Soviet]

Clean them with the pistons up in the hole, vacuum out what you can, rotate to bottom and clean up what you missed.  As preciously stated, you don't want it getting caught in the rings.